Wandering Elder

As the debate over the language of climate and the political correct ways as to how we talk about the weather continue, many of us sit and watch our grass die and listen to stories of drought, super-storms, record-breaking temperatures (both highs and lows) and wander around our back yard in December without a coat. The weather is changing.  So is the composition of our planet.  Weather patterns are changing.  But so is the way in which we drill.  Fracking is leading to earthquakes in Oklahoma.  Water is poisoned by mining.  Flint Michigan can't catch a break (I think if this water crisis had happened in, say, LA, it would have been fixed in a week), and we feel  the weather is different. Our environment is changing in so many, many ways.  On a different level, our social systems are changing - breaking down perhaps or reshuffling to be sure.  But in our technological advances we are isolating ourselves.  And we have become (at least...

Another shooting.  Another wave of “Our hearts go out…” and “Our thoughts and prayers are with…”  Not to say that they don’t or shouldn’t or that they haven’t.  The sad news among this terrible event in Florida is that we are becoming all too accustomed to this kind of bad news and seem to have learned how to react and what to say in the midst of such things.  We tweet, post, and so forth, then we go on. When will enough be enough?  Why have we become so violent in our speech and in our actions culturally in what seems such a short amount of time? Before we can even get to those questions, though, the very loud, very standard talking heads emerge saying that the gun laws are to blame for being too strict or too lenient.  That the people in the nightclub should have been better armed to shoot back.  Perhaps these voices will suggest that the people at the club are at fault for either their sexuality or that the lateness of their revelry provide...

According to the author of the New Testament book of Hebrews, the law (the Levitical code) which was imparted to Moses on the mountain was given to Moses not by God, but through the mediation of angels (Hebrews 2:2).  This might be something of a revelation for readers of the New Testament or of the Bible in general. Hebrews is not the first New Testament book to make such a claim.  Acts has Stephen make such a declaration: "...you who received the law as delivered by angels..." And the Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians, "[the law] was ordained by angels." Some commentators argue that this is an acceptable Jewish  idea.  But is it?  Is what Hebrews claims a legitimate Jewish idea? There is the idea in the Old Testament as well as in a variety of Ancient Near Eastern cultures of what could be termed "divine agency" which is the idea that angels speak as proxy for God (see Judges 2:1 for example).  This idea is spelled out perhaps most...